Reasons why I am a nerd

Yesterday, I was chatting to a customer at the bookynook and (for some reason I can’t now remember), I said to her, “Oh, yeah. I am a complete nerd.”

She looked at me, eyes narrowed, and said, “You don’t look like a nerd. What makes you a nerd?”

In reply, I gave her an approximation of this list, which I have called, “Reasons why I am a nerd”.

1. I used to walk around my primary school making up poems and saying them out loud to myself. This is why I had no friends.
2. When I was younger, I was determined I was going to call my first-born child Veralidaine, after Veralidaine Sarrasri. the main character from Tamora Pierce’s Immortals series.
3. My husband and I are still determined we will call our first-born son Thor. Cos we like vikings and stuff.
4. We also like Viking metal. and Pagan metal. And folk metal. And fairy metal. And one of our favourite bands has a lot of songs about The Lord of the Rings.
5. I really, really like The Lord of the Rings. But I like The Hobbit more.
6. I run Linux on my computer. And my phone.
7. I sniff books when they come out of the boxes at work.
8. I know SQL.
9. Apart from metal, my favourite kinds of music are country (I LOVE Willie Nelson), and 90’s bubblegum pop (ditto Spice Girls).
10. My husband reads me HP Lovecraft.
11. I like Japanese horror movies.
12. I sing to my cat.
13. I have a crush on Neil Gaiman. And Scott Westerfeld.
14. I am pedantic about grammar.
15. I am currently coveting a necklace at the jewellers just because it has an octopus on it and I am in love with Alexia Tarabotti.
16. My first ever celebrity crush was on David Bowie, in his Labyrinth costume.
17. I am totally Team Unicorn.
18. When my husband told me I looked like a demented elf I was, secretly, proud.
19. I write about elves. And shapeshifters. And, one day, I really want to write about druids.
20. I am a trained librarian.
21. I know an awful lot about Greek Theatre.
22. I spent a disturbing amount of time in my wardrobe as a kid.
23. My husband and I first bonded over a shared love of Turkish Delight, based solely on the fact that we both love CS Lewis.
24. My first date with soon-to-be-husband was to a Harry Potter movie.
25. I used to belong to a mediaeval re-enactment society.
26. I love John Green …
27. … nearly as much as I love Dungeons and Dragons.
28. I used to wear Happy Pants. Lots.
29. I wear a Sonata Arctica necklace and a Nightwish ring (Google them).
30. I do actually believe in fairies. Really. When I go to the UK in three weeks I am going to go looking for them.

I could go on and on and on. But I’m a bit worried I’m scaring you. So, I’ll throw it over to you. Are you a nerd? And, if so, why?

1. I ♥ StarTrek
2. I ♥ Stargate
3. I think my glasses make me look cooler
4. I could write an academic paper on why Twilight is bad for girls
5. I liked Twilight (the movies too)
6. My first real crush was on MacGuyver
7. I work in Web/Graphic design and actually like the coding part
8. I have studied Latin and Ancient Greek & ♥’d it so much I have decided to complete a second undergraduate degree (8 subjects to go!!!)
9. I’d rather read books than watch t.v.
10. I played handball at lunch time in Highschool
11. I don’t watch commercial t.v. at all
12. I read many books to teach me to cook without watching a single episode of MasterChef
13. I love word games like scrabble
14. Sometimes I like to hide away from the world with my cat
15. I love the Twilight soundtracks (all three of them)
16. I don’t like Muse
17. All my pets are named afer StarTrek (Ryker, Jordie, Sisco) characters except for my late ginger cat, Scully (X-Files)
18. I hated myself as a teenager but I KNEW I was smarter than everyone around me
19. My second real crush was Wil Wheaton
20. I’m rather fond of Legend of the Seeker
21. I understand the jokes on the Think-Geek merchandise
22. My favourie Think-Geek product is the welcome mat with ‘There’s no place like 172.0.0.1’ on it
23. I loved Dark City
24. I write to work out life’s problems and share my solutions with others, because I am smart and can help solve world hunger, poverty and eliminate reality tv
25. I would love to have Dr Who’s powers (a female doctor, what concept!)
26. Dangerous driving scares me because I understand the physics involved in crashing
27. I play World of Warcraft occasionally
28. I’ll chose the Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie on at the cinema over the others which are on EVERY time
29. I want another season of Firefly
30. More than half of my pro primary/high school photos involve a cold sore, broken glasses or me being the tallest in the class

And I can totally relate to loving the whole Star Wars universe! I remember going to a midnight screening of the remastered version of A New Hope … and I own some of the Lego too!! Clearly we are nerds of a feather 😀

Yes, very cute – though it can lead to bad things, like far too much time spent playing Lego Star Wars on the PS2!! But perhaps that was already bound to happen once I’d gone as fangirl as reading those Timothy Zahn novels back in the 90s …

You go, Nerd Girl! Some of the more obvious reasons I’m a nerd too: I own every season of every incarnation of Star Trek – even the animated series – and a Next Gen uniform. I understand all the comic book references when watching The Big Bang Theory. I based the hottest character in my first published novel on Tom Welling (Clark Kent in Smallville). And the whole premise of my next book was inspired by spending way too much time playing Animal Crossing.

1. I love everything about Star Wars. I love the movies. I love the novels set *after* the movies (yes, they exist). I have Star Wars lego – loads of it!
2. I used to write Star Wars fanfiction. I won fanfiction awards with it and was excited about this (nuuuuurd).
3. My favourite Star Wars character is from the EU: Anakin Solo. Yep, you heard me: Solo. (If you don’t know who Anakin Solo is or what the EU is, Google it. It basically says I’m a nerd).
4. I play online role-playing medieval games quite similar to Dungeons and Dragons. But it’s not. It’s much cooler than that. Now excuse me while I go and level up.
5. I’m obsessive with my books. I can’t have the spines creased AT ALL. And I smell them.
6. If it were possible to look hot in a Leia slavegirl costume without airbrushing I would totally buy one and wear it out.
7. The music to the Merlin tv show makes me teary. And yes, I’m aware of how lame that sounds.
8. I liked Muse before Twilight made them cool.